Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Smokers are interesting folk. They like their tobacco. They enjoy the smoke rolling over their tongue and sucking it deeply into their lungs. They enjoy a brief moment of the rush they get as the tobacco enters

their bloodstream and reaches the brain quickly. They like to huff and puff and blow the smoke outof their mouth, off their lips and into the air. Some creative smokers are very good at smoke rings; oneinside the other. They like to flick their cigarettes as far as they can. It's a flicking contest to see if theycan flick their little tobacco butt to a certain pre-determined location; like playing darts going for the target.

Smokers like to smoke however there are a few who really do want to stop. They are tired of waking up andspitting out phlegm every morning from the smokers hack. They are tired of people, especially their children tell them it's bad and that they stink. They see the signs all around them that let them know that cigarettes can and do kill or maim people everyday. Hundreds of thousands of people.

Hypnosis is one of the most powerful methods to help a person stop smoking naturally and permanently. BUT, there is a problem. Smokers like to smoke regardless. Even though they can chew gum, get patches, acupuncture, laser and of course use hypnosis; many go back and will still smoke.

So, what's going on? Why are people so freakin' into this self-destructive habit that they are willing to risk their lives to continue on with it? It is irrational behavior (but so is politics).

Smoking is not rational folks, it is an emotional issue. People are emotionally anchored to the smoking habit. HABIT. Yes I said habit. Not addiction because in 72 hours from stopping all the tobacco is out of the system and then all you have left is "monkey talk". In case you don't know what monkey talk is it is that garbage in the mind that swirls around reinforcing all the dumb reasons to smoke.

So for all you smokers out there now pay attention because I will share with you the easiest way to stop smoking. It ain't will power, it ain't pills, it ain't drugs or patches either. You just stop.

Yeah right you say! Been there, done that, failed. Yes you have but if you use a strategy based on emotions you will be successful.

You can use positive or negative reinforcement. It does not matter. The only thing that matters is that you use a powerful emotional experience in your life, YOUR LIFE that you can anchor to stop smoking~ ~

I had a client who stopped easily when they put the face of their cheating smoking spouse on a cigarette. Sure made them not want to suck face with tobacco anymore.

Another client had beautiful grand kids and wanted, really wanted to be around for their graduation.

Then there was a client who lost their very friend to cancer and saw and felt the pain it caused him and the family. They stopped cold turkey.

And of course the client who stopped when she discovered her husband had developed cancer and ended up in the hospital and the edge of death and gave it up immediately. Fortunately he lived and she never went back to smoking again.

The one thing they have in common is an emotional experience and in the 25+ years I have been working with smokers I have found this to be true.

Why not take a moment now to look at a Stop Smoking program for yourself or someone you love. You can stop smoking with hypnosis and feel good about life all over again!

Antonia Harrison challenges people to Change their Minds to Save Their Life using powerful hypnosis and NLP. "We are boxed in by the boundary conditions of our thinking." - Einstein

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Nicotine patches have been branded a waste of time as study finds they don't help smokers quit long-term. Former smokers just as likely to relapse if they used nicotine replacement therapies to help them quit.

Nicotine patches are no better than willpower at helping smokers to quit, research shows.
Earlier clinical trials had suggested nicotine replacement therapy could double a smoker’s chances of giving up the habit. But a new study of 800 patients found patches made no difference to long-term quitting rates.

Researchers said the earlier trials had failed to replicate ‘real-life’ situations. They said success and relapse rates were similar whatever method smokers adopted.

The NHS spends an estimated £84million a year on stop smoking programmes. A week’s supply of patches, which can be obtained on prescription, cost £10 to £14.

The latest study – by the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Massachusetts, Boston – investigated patients who gave up smoking between 2001 and 2006.
It concluded: ‘The main finding is that persons who quit relapsed at equivalent rates, whether or not they used nicotine replacement therapy to help them in their quit attempts, in clear distinction to the results of randomised clinical trials.’

The results were the same for heavy and lighter smokers and whether counselling was or was not given.

Harvard’s Hillel Alpert said: ‘This study shows that using NRT is no more effective in helping people stop smoking cigarettes in the long term than trying to quit on one’s own.’

The cost of quitting: People can spend up to £14 a week on patches. In an online report in the journal Tobacco Control, fellow author Lois Biener said the funding for NRT might be better spent on other interventions. In replacement therapy, patches, gum, nasal sprays or inhalers are used to supply nicotine to the bloodstream.

NHS figures show that quit rates – giving up for at least four weeks – are slightly better for patients using willpower than patches.

However, a Department of Health spokesman said: ‘Other studies have shown that NRT is safe and effective, and can double a person’s chances of successfully quitting.’

Further American research released yesterday suggests that nicotine patches can help improve memory loss among older people.

Non-smokers with failing brainpower who used patches for six months had a 46 per cent improvement in their memory skills, according to a report in the journal Neurology about the study at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville.

Previous research has suggested nicotine helps brainpower among Alzheimer’s sufferers.